CHAPTER XIV BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION Prior to the passage of the act of March 3, 1891, the various laws relating to the immigration of aliens, including those in regard to the importation of contract laborers, were administered by State officials. designated by the governors of the respective States, under the direction and control of the Secretary of the Treasury, and the expense incurred in such administration was defrayed from the permanent appropriation provided for by the act approved August 3, 1882, and known as the "Immigrant fund." Section 7 of the first-mentioned act established the office of Superintendent of Immigration, placing this officer under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury. The same act provided that the duties theretofore discharged by State commissions, boards, or officers should be performed and exercised, as occasion might require, by the inspection officers of the United States. Thus for the first time the administration of the immigration laws came into the hands of Federal officials exclusively. The act of March 2, 1895, made an appropriation for the enforcement of the alien contract-labor laws, and under the heading "Bureau of Immigration" changed the title of the Superintendent to Commissioner-General of Immigration, and in addition to his other duties charged him with the enforcement, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, of the alien contract-labor laws. By the act of June 6, 1900, the duties of the Commissioner-General of Immigration were extended further to include the administration of the Chinese-exclusion law, under the supervision and direction of the head of the Department. The law of February 14, 1903, establishing the Department of Commerce and Labor, transferred the Bureau of Immigration and its official force, both at the capital and at large, to the Department of Commerce and Labor, and the authority conferred by any legislation in relation to the immigration of aliens and the exclusion of Chinese persons upon the Secretary of the Treasury, was conferred upon the Secretary of Commerce and Labor from and after July 1, 1903. [As modified by act of February 14, 1903, secs. 4 and 7, pages 26 and 28.] Duty on immi grant. 32 Stat., 1213. fund. There shall be levied, collected, and paid a duty of two dollars for each and every passenger not a citizen of the United States, or of the Dominion of Canada, the Republic of Cuba, or of the Republic of Mexico, who shall come by steam, sail, or other vessel from any foreign port to any port within the United States, or by any railway or any other mode of transportation, from foreign contiguous territory to the United States. The said duty shall be paid to the collector of customs of the port or customs district to which said- alien passenger shall come, or, if there be no collector at such port or district, then to the collector nearest thereto, by the master, agent, owner, or consignee of every such vessel or transportation line. The money thus collected shall be paid into the United States Treasury and shall constitute a permanent approImmigrant priation to be called the "immigrant fund," to be used under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to defray the expense of regulating the immigration of aliens into the United States under this Act, including the cost of reports of decisions of the Federal courts, and digests thereof, for the use of the Commissioner-General of Immigration, and the salaries and expenses of all officers, clerks, and employees appointed for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of this Act. The duty imposed by this section shall be a lien upon the vessel which shall bring such aliens to ports of the United States, and shall be a debt in favor of the United States against the owner or owners of such vessels, and the payment of such duty may be enforced by any legal or equitable remedy; the head tax herein provided for shall not be levied upon aliens in transit through the United States nor upon aliens who have once been admitted into the United States and have paid the head tax who later shall go in transit from one part of the United States to another through foreign contiguous territory: Provided, That the Commissioner-General of Immigration, under the direction or with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, by agreement with transportation lines, as provided in section thirty-two of this Act, may arrange in some other manner for the payment of the duty imposed by this section upon aliens seeking admission overland, either as to all or as to any such aliens. Inadmissible classes. Sec. 2. Contract labor. The following classes of aliens shall be excluded from admission into the United States: All idiots, insane persons, epileptics, and persons who have been insane within five years previous; persons who have had two or more attacks of insanity at any time previously; paupers; persons likely to become a public charge; professional beggars; persons afflicted with a loathsome or with a dangerous contagious disease; persons who have been convicted of a felony or other crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude; polygamists, anarchists, or persons who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all government or of all forms of law, or the assassination of public officials; prostitutes, and persons who procure or attempt to bring in prostitutes or women for the purpose of prostitution; those who have been, within one year from the date of the application for admission to the United States, deported as being under offers, solicitations, promises or agreements to perform labor or service of some kind therein; and also any person whose ticket or passage is paid for with the money of another, or who is assisted by others to come, unless it is affirmatively and satisfactorily shown that such person does not belong to one of the foregoing excluded classes; " but this section shall not be held to prevent persons living in the United States from sending for a relative or friend who is not of the foregoing excluded classes: Provided, That nothing in this Act shall Exceptions. exclude persons convicted of an offense purely political, not involving moral turpitude: And provided further, That skilled labor may be imported, if labor of like kind unemployed can not be found in this country: And provided further, That the provisions of this law applicable to contract labor shall not be held to exclude professional actors, artists, lecturers, singers, ministers of any religious denomination, professors for colleges or seminaries, persons belonging to any recognized learned profession, or persons employed strictly as personal or domestic servants. Importation of women for prosforbid Sec. 3. The importation into the United States of any woman or girl for the purposes of prostitution is hereby for- titution bidden; and whoever shall import or attempt to import any woman or girl into the United States for the purposes of prostitution, or shall hold or attempt to hold, any woman or girl for such purposes in pursuance of such illegal importation shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned not less than one nor more than five years and pay a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars. Penalty. transportation It shall be unlawful for any person, company, part- Prepayment of nership, or corporation, in any manner whatsoever, to forbidden. prepay the transportation or in any way to assist or encourage the importation or migration of any alien @Anarchists inadmissible, page 393; alien contract laborers inadmissible, page 394. Sec. 4. Penalty. Suit into the United States, in pursuance of any offer, solicitation, promise, or agreement, parole or special, expressed or implied, made previous to the importation of such alien to perform labor or service of any kind, skilled or unskilled, in the United States. For every violation of any of the provisions of section four of this Act the person, partnership, company, or corporation violating the same, by knowingly assisting, encouraging, or soliciting the migration or importation of any alien to the United States to perform labor or service of any kind by reason of any offer, solicitation, promise, or agreement, express or implied, parole or special, to or with such alien shall forfeit and pay for every such offense the sum of one thousand dollars, which may be sued for brought and recovered by the United States, or by any person who shall first bring his action therefor in his own name and for his own benefit, including any such alien thus promised labor or service of any kind as aforesaid, as debts of like amount are now recovered in the courts of the United States; and separate suits may be brought for each alien thus promised labor or service of any kind as aforesaid. And it shall be the duty of the district attorney of the proper district to prosecute every such suit when brought by the United States. by United States, or any person. Advertisements promising ployment. Sec. 6. em Restrictions on transportation Sec. 7. It shall be unlawful and be deemed a violation of section four of this Act to assist or encourage the importation or migration of any alien by a promise of employment through advertisements printed and published in any foreign country; and any alien coming to this country in consequence of such an advertisement shall be treated as coming under a promise or agreement as contemplated in section two of this Act, and the penalties imposed by section five of this Act shall be applicable to such a case: Provided, That this section shall not apply to States or Territories, the District of Columbia, or places subject to the jurisdiction of the United States advertising the inducements they offer for immigration thereto, respectively. No transportation company or owner or owners of company. vessels or others engaged in transporting aliens into the United States, shall, directly or through agents, either by writing, printing, or oral representations, solicit, invite, or encourage the immigration of any aliens into the United States except by ordinary commercial letters, circulars, advertisements, or oral representations, stating the sailings of their vessels and terms and facilities of transportation therein; and for a violation of this provision any such transportation company and any such owner or owners of vessels, and all others engaged in transporting aliens to the United States, and the agents by them employed, shall be subjected to the penalties imposed by section five of this Act. Penalty for un lawfully bring Any person, including the master, agent, owner, or ing alien into consignee of any vessel, who shall bring into or land in the United States, by vessel or otherwise, or who shall United States. Sec. 8. attempt, by himself or through another, to bring into or land in the United States, by vessel or otherwise, any alien not duly admitted by an immigrant inspector, or not lawfully entitled to enter the United States, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction, be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars for each and every alien so landed or attempted to be landed, or by imprisonment for a term not less than three months nor more than two years, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Alien with dis Sec. 9. It shall be unlawful for any person, including any ease. transportation company other than railway lines entering the United States from foreign contiguous territory, or the owner, master, agent, or consignee of any vessel to bring to the United States any alien afflicted with a loathsome or with a dangerous contagious disease; and if it shall appear to the satisfaction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor that any alien so brought to the United States was afflicted with such a disease at the time of foreign embarkation, and that the existence of such disease might have been detected by means of a competent medical examination at such time, such person or transportation company or the master, agent, owner, or consignee of any such vessel shall pay to the collector of customs of the customs district in which the port of arrival is located the sum of one hundred dollars for each and every violation of the provisions of this section; and no vessel shall be granted clearance papers while any such fine imposed upon it remains unpaid, nor shall such fine be remitted. Sec. 10. The decision of the board of special inquiry, herein- board of special after provided for, based upon the certificate of the inquiry. examining medical officer, shall be final as to the rejection of aliens afflicted with a loathsome or with a dangerous contagious disease, or with any mental or physical disability which would bring such aliens within any of the classes excluded from admission to the United States under section two of this Act. ed alien companion. Sec. 11. with Upon the certificate of a medical officer of the Public Helpless rejectHealth and Marine-Hospital Service to the effect that a rejected alien is helpless from sickness, physical disability, or infancy, if such alien is accompanied by another alien whose protection or guardianship is required by such rejected alien, the master, agent, owner, or consignee of the vessel in which such alien and accompanying alien are brought shall be required to return said alien and accompanying alien in the same manner as vessels are required to return other rejected aliens. Master of ves Sec. 12. Upon the arrival of any alien by water at any port sel to furnish list within the United States it shall be the duty of the of aliens. master or commanding officer of the steamer, sailing or other vessel, having said alien on board to deliver to the immigration officers at the port of arrival lists or manifests made at the time and place of embarkation of such alien on board such steamer or vessel, which shall, 27628-04-25 |